Kevin Riley
by Firegrace
Summary: This is what happens when Riley (finally) gets a girlfriend! Yup, I'm terrible at summaries. Inspired by Zelda12343's Dear Fanfiction Writers TOS style and Riley's desperation therein. First fanfic ever, so please no hate. Rated K for McCoy being McCoy in future chapters.
1. Chapter 1

Kevin Riley was making his way across the bridge to deliver a PADD to the Captain (he was still shocked he was even allowed on the bridge or in engineering after _the incident_) when Lt. Uhura's comm station buzzed. "Incoming transmission from Starfleet, Captain." "On screen." Everyone on the bridge turned, excepting Scotty, who'd gotten into a fight last shore leave and didn't want command to see the large bruise over his right eye. "Captain Kirk." The Admiral on screen said, addressing the Captain. "Yes, Admiral?" "You have a new shuttle and crew member coming aboard later today, a Lt. Axia Burwell in an, as yet, unnamed shuttle. Her transfer orders should arrive in a few minutes. Starfleet out." Instantly, chatter filled the bridge about the new crew member. Suddenly, Chekov's voice was heard above everyone else. "Axia Burwell? Ze Axia Burwell?" Things quieted down, as Kirk turned to look at the younger man. "You know her?" "Yes, sair. She vas ze best in our year in warp dynamics. She made a new formula zhat Starfleet adopted. Almost all ze boys in our year tried to get a date with her." Riley snickered as Chekov blushed. "Well, Mr. Scott. It seems you have competition." He muttered, "No lassie is gonna go interferin' with my wee bairns.." The captain smiled at his indignant chief engineer. "That's yet to be determined., Mr. Scott." "Yes cap'n." he sighed.

=/\=

Riley's first meeting with Lt. Burwell was in the mess hall around 17:00 that day. Her shuttle had docked three hours earlier, and rumours had started flying about her. The first thing he noticed was that it _was_ true; she was a stunner. Her wavy black hair had started to come out of its bun, loosely framing her features and making her soft grey eyes stand out. She wore no makeup as far as he could tell, and her ivory cheeks were dotted with very subtle freckles. She was about an inch shorter than him, and was fairly thin. _Knock it off, Riley, she probably already has a boyfriend_,he mentally berated himself. "Hullo. Who are you? I'm Axia." She'd wandered over, noticing his stare. "I'm Kevin O'Riley, though most just call me Riley." She looked startled. "Riley? _The_ Kevin O'Riley? The guy who single-handedly nearly destroyed this ship?" He was positively floored. They'd managed to keep that one quiet, somehow. How the hell did she know? "Wh-where'd ya hear that?" he stuttered, not making eye contact. "You messed up the warp field, so they sent the stats to me to figure out how the hell to fix it. Took me awhile-still have no clue _how _exactly you managed it. And my eyes are on my face, not the floor." He instantly switched his gaze to her face. "Oh." was all he could presently manage, and his face flushed redder than her uniform dress. She laughed at his reaction, and as a couple more people approached, she grabbed his arm and led him out of the mess. Once they were at her quarters, he said, "What the hell was all that about?" "People have been badgering me all day. I know they're just trying to be friendly, but it's starting to drive me crazy." She pushed past him, into her quarters. She looked over her shoulder. "Coming?" he hurried in after her. There wasn't anything to show her personality in the room yet, only the standard issue Starfleet furnishings and a few scattered PADDs. "Wanna give me a hand unpacking?" "Sure." He answered, hoping to learn more about her. As they began to unpack together, he noticed a few things; she liked old books, _Tom Sawyer _and_ Peter Pan_ being among her small collection. She also apparently had a love of drawing, half-finished sketches beginning to litter the floor. Finally, he interrupted their relatively quiet work. "I've got Alpha shift tomorrow. This has been nice, but I need to go." "Alright." She walked with him to the door, and kissed his cheek. "Thanks for the help, Kevin." She gently pushed him out into the hallway, and left him there, wondering if that'd really just happened.


	2. Chapter 2

Author's note: Thanks for the feedback everyone! I'll try to get an update in every week or so, though I can't guarantee anything with exams coming up. Please let me know via review or PM any suggestions you have, they're very much appreciated. I'm considering doing a sort of drabble set of miscellaneous pairings, so if you have any you want, feel free to submit them, via PM only! Same goes for any story suggestions. I'm blabbering now, so I'll shut up. Firegrace out!

=/\=

"Uhura, damage report!" the Captain shouted across the bridge, as the ship rolled once again. They'd been on a simple star charting mission when a sensor had failed to alert them of an approaching ion storm. By the time warnings had sounded, it was too late. Uhura quickly read off, "Little damage on most decks! Minor explosion in engineering, several injuries." Kevin's head shot up, a sinking feeling in his gut. _Please, don't let it be her..._ "Severe?" Kirk asked. Uhura instantly put McCoy on speaker. McCoy being McCoy, he instantly started yelling. "Dammit Jim, can't you keep this ship steady for one damn minute! We have operations to do down here!" Kirk looked quite alarmed for a second before attempting to regain some semblance of composure. "Injury count? Severity?" "We have about a dozen people down here. A few somewhat severe. Most problematic is-" suddenly, communications stopped completely as the ship spun. Kevin, who had just stood, intending to find a comm unit to try and find Axia, was thrown across the bridge. He hit the viewscreen on the other side, and slid down the wall. He groaned in pain as he heard Uhura attempting to get a comm line to sickbay. "This is the bridge, sickbay, come in sickbay!" As he passed out, she said to whoever she'd gotten on the line "Get word to sickbay that we need a medical team to the bridge!" Then nothing.

=/\=

Kevin Riley opened his eyes to the grey ceiling of the medical bay. His whole body ached, and he had a splitting headache, not helped by the bright light above his bed. He gingerly rolled over, to see McCoy standing next to him, tricorder whirring. "Ugh, I feel like I just got punched by a klingon." The doctor chuckled slightly at that. "Well Riley, I'd wager that getting punched by a klingon wouldn't have caused quite as much damage as being thrown into a wall. You had a mild concussion, as well as several broken ribs. That's without the dozen or so minor injuries. You're off duty for a good few days." Kevin was definitely not going to argue with that. However, he had a bigger question on his mind. "Is Axia-Lt. Burwell I mean- alright?" "She's fine. Worried sick about you, I might add." he said with a smirk. "How soon can I see her?" Kevin asked. "Not for awhile. You both need rest. She sustained a few injuries-nothing too bad-in the explosion and she needs some more time to recuperate." McCoy answered him. He sighed, and fell asleep again.


	3. Chapter 3

Author's note: Thanks for all the feedback, it's much appreciated. I also must apologize for the gaps in my updates. It's exam time for me, and my schedule's a bit crazy. So without further ado, here's chapter three! ALSO: italics, unless in quotation marks, indicate thoughts when in Axia's POV and I can't find a way to formulate that explanation sensibly. Alright, I'll stop yammering now.

Kevin woke with a start. McCoy peered around the corner. "You alright, kid?" "Yeah, I'm fine. Just a dream is all." McCoy went back to what he'd been doing before. Riley had been having _very_ strange dreams lately, this one culminating with Axia suddenly having wings for some bizarre reason. "I'm going stir-crazy shut up in here.." He muttered to himself. What McCoy had originally promised to be a few days had turned into a bit over a week after a bad reaction to a particular treatment left him with bouts of dizziness, a big problem for the engineer. He fumbled around for the PADD he'd been using the previous day and quickly found it. Unfortunately, he'd left it on and it was now out of charge. "Dammit!" He cursed under his breath. "What was that?" He looked up to see Axia standing there looking amused. "Did you really forget to plug it in again?" She asked him. "Well, yeah..." Axia rolled her eyes. "So how are you feeling?" "Fine. Bored out of my skull, but otherwise fine." She looked at him, confused. "I would've thought you'd be excited, what with doctor McCoy letting you out this afternoon." "_**What?!**_Hey Doc, why didn't I know about this?"McCoy replied from around the corner. "Because you would've been checking the clock all day, which gets irritating after a few hours." Kevin was about to retort, before remembering the Doc's reputation as "hypo-happy". Almost as though she knew what he was thinking, Axia giggled. "Am I going to have you two lovebirds acting like this all day?" At that, both Kevin and Axia went bright red. Though neither had even begun to discuss what their.. relationship.. was, rumours were flying around the ship. Knowing they'd somehow gotten to McCoy already was disconcerting. "Alright, that's it. I can't handle the lovey-dovey stuff at this hour. Both of you, out." Kevin leapt from the bed, and nearly ran from sickbay, McCoy shouting at him, "Hey! Don't make me regret this!"

* * *

Axia's POV

I sprinted to catch up with the absolutely crazy man who'd somehow stumbled into my life. "Oi! Kev! I get it, you're eager to get outta sick bay, but we're two decks down now! No need to run." He suddenly stopped, and I nearly crashed into him. However, being perpetually clumsy me, I wobbled and fell over into the wall instead. He helped me up. "Are you alright?" he asked, worriedly. "Yeah, fine Kev. You just stopped a bit abruptly." He looked at the ground. "Oops. Sorry, Axia." Then he looked back up at me with a cheeky grin. "By the way, when did I become Kev?" It was now my turn to feel incredibly embarrassed, apparently. "Erm.. I dunno. I'll stop it." He laughed and said, somewhat sheepishly, "I don't mind. Actually, I sorta call you Axle in my head." _Wait, what?_ "Well, I don't mind that. But Axle? Really? Why Axle?" He started walking in the direction of the Rec rooms as he replied. "I heard your name wrong the first time. Took me an hour to figure it out." I laughed. "Race to the Rec room! 3, 2, 1, GO!" I yelled, already in motion. He shouted indignantly. I ran as fast as I could, but skidded to a stop when I heard a distinct thud and an "Ow!" from behind me. I turned around, not see him post-wall collision, but instead sprawled on the floor with a Klingon disruptor in his face. Oh, and one very angry Klingon. _Uh oh._


End file.
